Various companies provide reservation services for customers wherein rewards, points, or discounts are provided to the customers if the customers utilize certain credit cards, debit cards, or other preferred payment methods. For instance, dining programs may provide credit cardholders with restaurant reservation services for use with participating restaurants, and if the customer pays the restaurant's bill with a preferred or eligible credit card, then the customer is awarded a dining discount provided by the restaurant when closing the dinner transaction. Other reservation systems (e.g., hotel, airline, etc.) may provide, through affiliations with banks or credit or payment card companies, rewards, points, or other discounts to the customer if the customer utilizes an eligible credit card for payment. In this way, the issuing bank or payment card company benefits by encouraging the customer to utilize its payment cards for the particular transaction; the merchant benefits in that more customers are brought to the merchant's business; and the customer benefits by receiving a discount or other award merely for using an eligible payment card to complete the transaction.
Despite its advantages, conventional reservation discount/award programs may be subject to a number of implementation problems. Although the customer must have an eligible payment card to make a reservation, it is possible that the customer may utilize a non-eligible form of payment to close the transaction and still expect a discount. In programs where a customer is rewarded for dining at a merchant by using an “enrolled” card, the customer is often not aware of the discount or bonus incentive until after they dine, thus cannibalizing the merchant's margins, as these are not incremental diners. Furthermore, there may be little ability to accurately track discounts applied, particularly where the process of rewarding the discounts to the customer is performed by the merchant before the transaction amount is transmitted to the payment card company.
The present inventors have also recognized that some customers may prefer to have their discounts provided to them in forms other than a cash back reward, such as points, miles, or other forms of reward.
Moreover, where a discount is manually processed by a merchant, the possibility for a data entry error or mathematical calculation error exists. In a busy restaurant setting, a reservation discount program may require that restaurant employees calculate the discount given to the customer, and such calculations may be subject to human error from time to time.
As recognized by the present inventors, in some business applications, there is a need to provide participating merchants with a closed-loop capacity efficiency process where distressed or discounted inventory may be served up as an incentive to customers who are then rewarded for altering their behavior to use up this inventory.
Accordingly, as recognized by the present inventors, what is needed is a system and method for automating discounts based on a customer's use of an eligible payment card that is part of a reservation program, such as a controlled-inventory management reservation program.
It is against this background that various embodiments of the present invention were developed.